Town Square

California PTA declares Class Warfare

Original post made
by Nomad, Another Pleasanton neighborhood,
on Dec 4, 2011

The California PTA announced on Nov 30, 2011 support (Web Link) for a school funding initiative that will "generate the additional revenues through a sliding scale income tax increase that varies with taxpayers' ability to pay, with the highest income earners contributing the most."

'Tax the Rich' is the plan, and the California PTA is a champion and enabler, jumping on the current liberal thought wave to secure new sources of funding for its interests. After failing an attempt to lower the voter approval required for local funding initiatives from 66% to 55%, the CA PTA continues to look for new ways to grab a larger share of CA residents pay.

As more US workers pay no federal and state income tax, liberal politicians are creating a voting bloc that will always favor taxing those who make more than they do, to protect their own non-taxpaying status. Remember the CA income tax surcharge on millionaires to pay for mental health programs? Tax the top 1% to pay for a public benefit. Enacted years ago, CA is already engaged in this 'Tax the Rich' taxation. Now comes more of the same.

The CA PTA is promoting tax policy that takes more from those who 'have' and redistributes it to the public education system that refuses to reform itself.

As with most CA initiatives of this type, it will likely come before the PUSD School Board for a vote of support. The message can not be more clear to Superintendent Ahmadi and the Board.

Do NOT support class warfare. Do NOT support this initiative.

If you encourage and enable this effort, you will continue to expose for all to see, your true intentions and thinking. For as of today, you have done nothing to reduce PUSD's expense structure in the face of the collapsing CA budget. With no will to reduce structural costs and continually pounding the public for more money, you only drive people to fight your fiscal ineptitude.

Engaging in class warfare in the name of our children's education is shameful. You and the CA PTA have done it before. And we will again fight this evil to make sure it does not see the light of day.

Call it what you wish, I support the funding initiative. If it reduces the gross disparities between rich and poor, all the better. Education is very much a class issue, as the class system is currently structured to the extreme disadvantage of working-class parents and their kids. The wealthy aren't going to cough anything up unless they are 'forced' to through initiatives of this sort.

Posted by Trudy
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Dec 4, 2011 at 11:00 pm

I had a college professor years ago who suggested that taxing the country's rich to be able to afford the social support services required by those who could not otherwise afford them actually goes to sustain the higher standard of living of the rich. If you provide for the poor, they will not turn against the elites in society because their basic needs are being met and they will harbor fewer resentments directly against the rich.

As we have seen playing out in the OWS movement over the last few months, he may have been right. The so-called 99% are revolting against the perceived tyranny of the 1%. It would have been easier for the 1% to pay more in taxes than suffer the consequences of OWS type anger.

The term "class warfare" is used to polarize voters for political advantage and only to incite and antagonize, never to accurately describe a condition of society. It is a label with very fluid definition and value, and in this case, used without thoughtfulness.

@"It would have been easier for the 1% to pay more in taxes than suffer the consequences of OWS type anger."

The wealthy never give anything away unless they absolutely have to. The logic of capital is for the wealthy capitalist to acquire as much as possible for him/her and her progeny -- this a matter of not being "eaten up" by other capitalists who operate with the same logic.

At the same time, as a means of protecting their holdings and abilities to increase their holdings, the wealthy are always calculating how to 'pay' (a minimum) in order to keep the poor silent. See Piven and Cloward's masterful treatise on how social welfare allotments always _increase_ in response to poor people's public expressions of dissatisfaction (demonstrations, marches, boycotts, riots), and how those same welfare allotments always _decrease_ as a function of poor people's expressions of dissatisfaction being increasingly contained.

Trudy, you're right about one thing, the OWS protestors are revolting. In fact, most are just gross and creepy and don't represent the majority of Americans.
Class envy is exactly what is being promoted, from. Owebama down to the local level, as exhibited here. Go ahead and tax business owners and corps.......it directly impacts you when the raise the prices of goods and services to offset your grab at their earnings to promote your agenda. Your weak understanding of economic theory is glaringly obvious.

Posted by Kathleen Ruegsegger
a resident of Vintage Hills Elementary School
on Dec 5, 2011 at 7:52 am

"The term 'class warfare' is used to polarize voters for political advantage and only to incite and antagonize, never to accurately describe a condition of society. It is a label with very fluid definition and value . . ." You could say the same for OWS--they don't really represent 99% of the populace, but it doesn't sound as onerous if you say you are the 20% (or any other number, frankly).

"It would have been easier for the 1% to pay more in taxes than suffer the consequences of OWS type anger." OWS is just as angry with California universities who are handing out raises to the top administrators and raising their tuitions. Those administrators aren't in the top 1% (annual income of $500,000).

The problem I see in all these posts is the same one we have in Sacramento or DC; dig in and take an extreme position on either side. Any reasonable people trying to work on the issues are getting drowned out by all the noise (see the topic on "End Welfare for the Wealthy").

Posted by Robin
a resident of Foothill High School
on Dec 5, 2011 at 9:52 am

The salaries for the top 1% have gone up exponentially in the past 10 years while the middle and lower class have seen their salaries decline.
Stop your whining, if I was in the top 1% I would be more than happy to pay my fair share and then some.
This "oh poor rich me, everyone is picking on us rich people" attitude is nauseating at the very least.

It's always someone else's fault. This time it's those evil, successful people, most of which worked really hard for a long time to make this year's list of the top 1% (as though that percentage is some magic number).
What's nauseating is the change in American society that excoriates successful people and tries to drag them down to the level of the less successful or incapable. America used to be a place where the citizenry used to want to emulate what made people successful, not exhibit their childish jealousy of their accomplishments. Those on the left that worship the Eurporean economic models are trying this class envy ploy to drag our country to their level and establish a socialist utopia where the govt (nanny) takes care of everyone equally. It's failed everywhere it's tried.....why would you start down that same path like lemmings?

Posted by reasonable
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Dec 5, 2011 at 12:23 pm

What is truly crazy is that many of the 1% are actually supportive of a tax increase on the rich! Ever heard of those "liberal elites?" Even Warren Buffett has been quoted saying the rich should pay more of their fair share.

The people crying "class warfare" are often not even the ones who would suffer a tax increase. In fact, many of them would benefit. Unfortunately, many "low information voters" put all their trust in Fox news and don't understand economics at all. They aspire to be part of the 1% and want to make sure the gravy train is still there when they get there.

Posted by AnnaS
a resident of Foothill High School
on Dec 5, 2011 at 1:01 pm

Yes, I SUPPORT, Yes, Milo Thompson III - Tax the Rich!
Robe the Robers! Proletarians of all countries, unite! Lets destroy the rich in this country so everybody will become equally poor! Why to spend the energy to create wealth if we can just redistribute it?
Goodbye Golden State, Welcome Communist Republic of California!
Just one question: when all the rich will gone, who do you think will feed you? Iran, China, North Korea? Or maybe, Indian people will come with their humanitarian help? I don't think so.

the message & how it shows that the angst & misguided & wrongly directed protest from that disenfranchised group of young malcontents that still are stinking up various plazas, city centers & business parks across the country.

We don't need to tax the rich, we need to stop throwing good money at bad endeavors.

NO Foreign aid...to ANYONE! Increase domestic energy production of oil, coal, nuclear, bio, solar, wind & ______________(fill in blank)
Defund and/or disband the NEA,(both arts & education) EPA, FCC and essentially non-defense, public infrastructure, utility, public safety or critical regulatory agency. In short the government could be 1/8 its current size and nobody would even know the difference and with the incentive for business to perform the pool of workers made available from the sudden availability of newly laid off government employees could absorb a goo deal of that bandwidth.

Win win if ya ask me but either way, we gotta tighten our belts and shake off the dead weight somehow.